SNAP: The World Unfolds

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Sandor was waiting for us in Budapest with a truck to haul my boxes to the castle. 

The trip to this point hadn’t been uneventful.  Chrissy had been the cabin attendant again and she greeted me with a smile that cracked her Ice Princess exterior and made her warm and human.  She was a donor; maybe it was the blood-giving that made her so pale and aloof.

“Do you want dinner on this leg?” she asked, putting my purse and briefcase in a small closet. 

“We have some pasta primavera.  Would you like a drink?  A glass of wine?”

“I’ll have a glass of pinot blanc,” I said, taking a spot on one of the couches for takeoff.  I glanced at Jean-Louis who was stowing his laptop in a desk drawer.  “Are you going to work?”

He looked up at me distractedly.  “Uh, yes, I have a few things to take care of. We need to watch the show, too.  There’ll be a very brief announcement that you’ve been promoted to International Planning Editor and will be working away from the office.”

“You’re not announcing that I’m moving to Hungary, are you?”  I knew I was going to the lion’s den, but I sure didn’t want it announced to the lions.

“No, no.  We’re just announcing that you won’t be working out of the L.A. office.  We’re hoping that the Huszars will spend time and money watching your condo and searching the area for you.  It won’t get them off our backs, but it may give us some breathing time.”

Chrissy caught his eye and he began a low glimmer.  “The usual, Chrissy,” he smiled.   “Thanks.”

When we reached cruising altitude, Chrissy brought out food and flipped on the realtime TV.  I took bites of food and sips of wine as I watched for the announcement of my, what? demise? abdication? removal?  Stop it.  I mentally smacked myself.  I had to get my head screwed around to understand and appreciate the positive of this...beyond staying alive.

I almost missed it.  Jincy, tonight’s anchor, threw in two sentences before sign off.  “In media news, SNAP’s magazine editor has been appointed to a new position.  Maxie Gwenoch will be planning for SNAP’s expansion to additional international markets.”

Chaz was certainly a master at un-information.

Touch down and refueling gave me a chance to stretch my legs and walk around the hangar.  Sucking in jet fuel vapors, rubber, grease, oil and unidentifiable other smells weren’t fresh air, but moving around eased some kinks.  As we hit altitude for the next, longer leg, Jean-Louis said, “I asked Chrissy to only make up one cabin.”

My stomach flipped.  This wasn’t the most romantic invite I’d had to sleep with some guy.

“I have more work to do,” he added, “so I’m not sure I’ll get any sleep.”

Work instead of me.  Why was I surprised?

I went into the cabin, looked at the big bed, chose a side, turned on a bedside lamp and got ready to read myself to sleep.  Some time later I jerked awake.  Some one was in the room with me.  I wasn’t awake enough to remember this room was at 35,000 feet; I screamed.  A short scream and just one sound before Jean-Louis put his hand over my mouth. “Hush.”

He was glimmering and his eyes were so dark they looked black.  He smiled at me, broad enough that I glimpsed his fangs as he leaned toward me.  I lurched upright and shrank away.

“Maxie, what’s wrong?’

His voice, soft and lulling, brought me fully awake.  “I’m sorry, I guess I was still asleep.”

“Dreaming again?”

“No,” I shook my head.  Had I been dreaming?  There weren’t any noises like before.  No vestiges of chases or feelings of fear.

“I wanted to talk to you about the plans.  Stefan has allocated a suite of eight rooms for you.  It’s in the same wing as my suite.  You have your apartment and your maid has a room as well.  We know, or we assumed, that you’ve never lived with other people and servants around, so we set it up to give you as much privacy as possible.  We, I, want you to feel this is your home”

I got stuck on “your maid,”  “I have a maid assigned?  Who?”

“Lisbet’s sister has agreed to come and work for as long as you’re there.  She’s been working in Budapest but was glad to come home.  Her name’s Elise.  I think you’ll like her.”

Once again, the vampires had done it right.  They were courtly, mannered, urbane.  I flashed on suggesting that they give lessons to the world’s diplomats.

“If we were great at diplomacy, we’d have won over the Huszars by now,” his glimmer got stronger.  He ran his hand down my face and my skin tingled.

This time, when he leaned toward me, I didn’t flinch.  His lips caressed my face, my ear lobes, my eyebrows.  I closed my eyes, my bones melting, and began an almost purr as he kissed my eyelids.

“You are soft,” he whispered as his hands pulled up the shirt I was sleeping in.  He touched my breasts and ran a hand down, over my thigh.  I couldn’t resist.  My body was limp and I silently told him to do whatever he wanted to.  He heard my language, and slowly, slowly made love to me.  It was outside any sensations, any sex, I’d ever had and after it was over, we lay twined together.

If this was an introduction to my new world, I was ready.